UNIVERSITY STANDARDS 81 



So I sat before him helpless, 



In an ecstacy of woe; 

 The mountain mists were rising fast, 



The sun was sinking slow — 

 When a sudden inspiration came, 



As sudden winds do blow. 



I took my hat, I took my stick, 



My load I settled fair, 

 I approached that awful incubus 



With an absent-minded air — 

 And I walked directly through him, 



As if he wasn't there. 



Actually the only reason why these twenty-seven activities do not 

 stand in their proper, subordinate place — are not at once put where 

 they belong — is the inconstant will of alma mater. 



When, however, I said that the remedy was simple, I did not mean 

 that it could be applied any how, any way. The means deserve careful 

 thought and the exercise of such good sense as colleges may reasonably 

 be supposed to command. But the main point is the will and deter- 

 mination of alma mater to have, and to have respected, standards of 

 undergraduate conduct and achievement. In the face of such deter- 

 mination the loftiest structure buttressed by college tradition is a mere 

 house of cards. Happily the mind of youth is plastic, and the hoariest 

 college custom may on occasion be treated exactly as if it wasn't there. 

 Certain qualities of heart and mind, with generous effort to improve 

 opportunity, are minimum qualifications for membership in a college. 

 The college has the duty and the authority — may it also have the 

 courage — to set up and maintain standards which will justify indeed 2 

 and increasingly, democracy's faith in education. 



VOL. LXXIX.- 6. 



